I have been away from the blog scene for a long time. To be frank i was not doing justice to the blog and i attributed this to paucity of time. I know what u are thinking. How can an unemployed complain about paucity of time. If at all, he has extra time at hand. Well, that's a debate for another time. What is important is that i found out the solution and here i am, back to writing. The solution is a simple one. I decided to keep off Facebook for a while and voila, my calender got freed up big time. :)
It is sad that the flavour of the season seems to be Rape in the Capital. There has been outrage over the incident and various organisations and people had called for stringent punishments...etc. Let me ask you one question, does having strict legislation make it any more safer? It never will. Rape is a multifaceted problem and it needs to be approached as such.
Rape in the Indian Legal System is a flawed concept. The IPC categorizes rape under Sexual offenses. What we need to understand is that Rape has nothing to do with anything sexual. It is an aggravated form of violence. The person committing rape doesn't derive pleasure from coitus. They derive a sense of satisfaction and pleasure from the domination of the other, the pain and helplessness of the other and the brutality of it all. This aspect of the crime needs to be kept in mind while framing the law. Moreover, the legislation needs to be gender neutral. In that sense, our legislation and approach is outdated.
These are nothing new and have been doing the rounds of legislative corridors for long with nothing to show for it. But do you think a legislation alone can stop this. Nope. If at all, it shows that one can rape and the only consolation for the victim is that he will be just punished for it. And ofcourse it goes without saying that if you have money and power, one can altogether escape punishment (in most cases). Does it do anything to prevent rape?
I remember my childhood days when our hostel warden used to inspect our rooms. Our rooms used to look spotless and clean. But that is all, it just LOOKED clean. We used to hide all the junk underneath all the cleanliness. I have even seen this approach of patchwork in many aspects of the society. We are happy as long as everything goes back to normal. Not to weed out the root cause of the problem.
The first approach that needs to be taken care of is our children. Todays criminals were yesterdays children. So to protect the future, we need to instill our young the concept of right and wrong. I have seen parents who revel in their child's capacity to cheat the examiner and even encourage them to sponge off others. These are the seeds for tomorrows crimes. We should teach them to differentiate between right/wrong and to do the right thing. The children also need to be taught to respect women from their childhood days.
Now is this alone enough. Definitely not.
Of course, It is not correct to blame the women for the dress they wear. Nor is it a valid defense to say that she asked for it. But what can we learn from this? Doesn't it show that our society is stifling of any signs of sexuality. Pre-marital sex is frowned upon and in some parts of india, even beaten upon (pun intended). Ofcourse, some would argue that it is not in our culture. But what i ask you is, in a patriarchal society like India, isn't it setting a collision course when on one side where there is an increased awareness of sexuality and on the other side stifling its expression and thereby not equipping the society to deal with such modernity?
So to conclude, i would say that we have been barking upon the wrong tree. If we don't wake up to that fact and do something about it, stricter punishments are not going to change anything. This will still be our future.
It is sad that the flavour of the season seems to be Rape in the Capital. There has been outrage over the incident and various organisations and people had called for stringent punishments...etc. Let me ask you one question, does having strict legislation make it any more safer? It never will. Rape is a multifaceted problem and it needs to be approached as such.
Rape in the Indian Legal System is a flawed concept. The IPC categorizes rape under Sexual offenses. What we need to understand is that Rape has nothing to do with anything sexual. It is an aggravated form of violence. The person committing rape doesn't derive pleasure from coitus. They derive a sense of satisfaction and pleasure from the domination of the other, the pain and helplessness of the other and the brutality of it all. This aspect of the crime needs to be kept in mind while framing the law. Moreover, the legislation needs to be gender neutral. In that sense, our legislation and approach is outdated.
These are nothing new and have been doing the rounds of legislative corridors for long with nothing to show for it. But do you think a legislation alone can stop this. Nope. If at all, it shows that one can rape and the only consolation for the victim is that he will be just punished for it. And ofcourse it goes without saying that if you have money and power, one can altogether escape punishment (in most cases). Does it do anything to prevent rape?
I remember my childhood days when our hostel warden used to inspect our rooms. Our rooms used to look spotless and clean. But that is all, it just LOOKED clean. We used to hide all the junk underneath all the cleanliness. I have even seen this approach of patchwork in many aspects of the society. We are happy as long as everything goes back to normal. Not to weed out the root cause of the problem.
The first approach that needs to be taken care of is our children. Todays criminals were yesterdays children. So to protect the future, we need to instill our young the concept of right and wrong. I have seen parents who revel in their child's capacity to cheat the examiner and even encourage them to sponge off others. These are the seeds for tomorrows crimes. We should teach them to differentiate between right/wrong and to do the right thing. The children also need to be taught to respect women from their childhood days.
Now is this alone enough. Definitely not.
Of course, It is not correct to blame the women for the dress they wear. Nor is it a valid defense to say that she asked for it. But what can we learn from this? Doesn't it show that our society is stifling of any signs of sexuality. Pre-marital sex is frowned upon and in some parts of india, even beaten upon (pun intended). Ofcourse, some would argue that it is not in our culture. But what i ask you is, in a patriarchal society like India, isn't it setting a collision course when on one side where there is an increased awareness of sexuality and on the other side stifling its expression and thereby not equipping the society to deal with such modernity?
So to conclude, i would say that we have been barking upon the wrong tree. If we don't wake up to that fact and do something about it, stricter punishments are not going to change anything. This will still be our future.
Totally agree. Addressing the problem at the root is the solution. We just need to find a way to do it.
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